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We seem to have at last come through the period of complete oversaturation in the melodeath subgenre and have to settle for simply being tired of it. I will be the first to admit that this style can yield some tremendous music, but in order to do so a band has to either play the fuck out of their music, or find some way for their work to stand out from the mass of stuff that has been done to death.

The Last Hangmen are almost squarely in the middle of the Melodic Death Metal road. Their songs are decent, their playing is tight, and they have some genuinely good riffs. Vocalist Pether has an undistinguished harsh attack, but he at least has a sense of pitch and timing, and doesn't hurt the album. The leadwork is pretty standard, and isn't really all that impressive. The production is really quite good, with a lot of heaviness but enough clarity to let the melodic ideas shine through.

The problem with this is that so much of it is so very familiar. Too many of the songs sound alike, with the same kinds of rhythms and riff-patterns. The drumwork is samey-sounding, and robs the tracks of what individuality they might have had. I suppose I'm damning with faint praise, but this is that kind of album. An enjoyable enough release for fans of the style, but then if you are a fan you already heard everything worth hearing about this album on old Dark Tranquility discs.